In this post I am sharing my experience, how to install gnome desktop on FreeBSD 10.3
Recently I have installed new FreeBSD 10.3 on my old desktop. In terms of unix like operating system, FreeBSD has its own edge. So when we install the FreeBSD by default it do not have any Desktop environment.

I won’t take your time to describe how to achieve this on FreeBSD 10.3. Before proceeding I would like to highlight that the installation of desktop consume time as well as bandwidth. So please expect the same.

Create user

In desktop only non-root user can login (By Default). Hence, in case you do not have any other user login apart of root then create new user. You can create user by simply using below given command, it will prompt you multiple question to answer also.

adduser

Given below is just an example when I created a user called sharad on my freebsd system.

# adduser
Username: sharad
Full name: J. Random User
Uid (Leave empty for default):
Login group [sharad]:
Login group is sharad. Invite sharad into other groups? []: wheel
Login class [default]:
Shell (sh csh tcsh zsh nologin) [sh]: sh
Home directory [/home/sharad]:
Home directory permissions (Leave empty for default):
Use password-based authentication? [yes]:
Use an empty password? (yes/no) [no]:
Use a random password? (yes/no) [no]:
Enter password:
Enter password again:
Lock out the account after creation? [no]:
Username   : sharad
Password   : ****
Full Name  : J. Random User
Uid        : 1001
Class      :
Groups     : sharad wheel
Home       : /home/sharad
Shell      : /bin/sh
Locked     : no
OK? (yes/no): yes
adduser: INFO: Successfully added (sharad) to the user database.
Add another user? (yes/no): no
Goodbye!

Install Xorg

In first step we will install Xorg which is known as X Windows system which provides the GUI to use.

pkg install xorg

Install Gnome 3, the Gnome Desktop

Gnome which is known for Desktop environment, we will install in this second step.

pkg install gnome3

Mount proc file system

By default GNOME requires procfs file system and it should be mounted during system startup.

Edit /etc/fstab file

vi /etc/fstab

To mount the proc file system, add the following line in file /etc/fstab

proc           /proc       procfs  rw  0   0

Enable HAL, DBus, GDM, Gnome

Edit the /etc/rc.conf file.

vi /etc/rc.conf

Add the following lines in file /etc/rc.conf , it will enable HAL, DBus, GDM and Gnome. Hence these services will be started on system startup.

hald_enable="Yes"
dbus_enable="Yes"
gdm_enable="YES"
gnome_enable="YES"

NOTE: Please note if /etc/rc.conf file has line dumpdev="AUTO" then HAL,DBUS,GDM,GNOME enable line should be written above of it.

Now restart the system.

init 6

We believe after system startup the Gnome desktop is appeared. Now login with non-root user because by default root user can not login into Desktop in FreeBSD.